A lot of us take for granted our five senses until we lose one or more of them. The ability to hear enriches one’s environment as well as keeps one safe as hearing alerts us to any oncoming danger. Federal workers with hearing loss have it particularly rough because their injuries tend to be complicated due to the prolonged exposure to loud decibel sounds as well as the fact that most injured workers file their injured federal worker claim prematurely before getting an accurate scope of the extent of their hearing loss, which may then lock them out of the compensation they deserve.
Are you looking to file an OWCP hearing loss claim? Please contact us NOW at 1-855-233-3002 to learn more about your legal options for compensation. OWCP usually assigns an impairment rating with all injured postal worker injury claims, so you want to make sure that your hearing loss injury is examined in its entirety so you don’t miss out on anything that a non-OWCP conversant physician may not catch. If you’d like help with your injured federal worker claim as well as access to medical resources, please contact us TODAY at 1-855-233-3002 to speak with a friendly OWCP attorney to learn more.
Hearing loss can be unilateral or bilateral; that is to say, it can affect one or both ears. In addition, should it affect both ears, it more often than not affects each ear in varying degrees. Federal professions where one may experience hearing loss include individuals stationed in the army and in combat stations around the world where the sound of gunfire, explosives and planes punctuate the environment day and night, those working in manufacturing warehouses, individuals working in the aeronautics industry, those working in areas located near highways and large machinery, and those in law enforcement. Hearing loss is gradual and may not be concerning at first because those that experience it usually have no idea that it is happening until they find themselves asking people to repeat what they just said, or find themselves turning on the TV and radio volume for the umpteenth time.
Some of the most common signs of hearing loss include:
- Tinnitus, or a continuous buzzing or hissing sound in one’s ear
- A gnawing pain inside the ear that doesn’t respond to steroid drops or painkillers
- Pus or fluid coming from the ear
- Hearing words as if they are muffled by a barrier
- Not being able to understand speech especially when there is background noise
- Vertigo
Filing a Hearing Loss Claim as an Injured Federal Worker
As with all OWCP injured federal worker claims, the burden will lie on you to prove that you were injured, and that work conditions were the direct cause of your hearing loss. You will need to submit Form CA-2 along with a memo which will include things like where you work, your title, duration of employment, and a history of previous workplaces. In addition, it is usually prudent to describe the noise source, how many hours you were exposed to it each day, if there were any safety equipment provided to protect you from said noise, and so on.
Need Help With Your OWCP Hearing Loss Claim? Call Us Now!
Perhaps the most important part of your claim will lie in your medical exams which will need to be carried out by two individuals: an audiologist and a neurotologist. Basically, your ability to qualify for compensation for hearing loss as a federal worker will hinge on the words contained in these medical reports. You want to make sure to choose a doctor that has experience diagnosing and treating injured postal workers because there is a certain guideline set forth by OWCP that they must follow. Finding such a physician is not easy, and a lot of the time, such medical reports may need to be redone to OWCP’s specifications: this ends up in lost time and money, resources you could have saved had you contacted an experienced injured federal worker law firm in the first place. If you’d like help with your OWCP hearing loss claim as well as access to our resources, please give us a call NOW at 1-855-233-3002 to speak with an injured federal worker attorney to learn more about your legal options for compensation. Thanks, and we look forward to hearing from you.